Pay Your Taxes or Lose Your Passport

This past September, the Department of Homeland Security declared you can no longer fly in the U.S. without a passport in these four states. Now there’s this news: According to a Wall Street Journal report, Congress is planning to pass a new law that could deny or retract passports from Americans who haven’t paid their taxes, raising roughly $398 million over 10 years.

The good news: The law, which is expected to take effect in January, will only punish those with “seriously delinquent” debt — we’re talking a $50,000 minimum of unpaid federal taxes.

The bad news: If you’re a U.S. citizen living abroad and don’t receive IRS mail (or if you live here but never open your mail box), you could be in trouble.

The exception: Those who are traveling for humanitarian reasons, are on an IRS payment plan, or are contesting a tax case in court don’t need to worry.